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Conura, from our Research Center in Maryland. These small parasitic wasps are thought (or so google indicates) to be hyperparasites...infecting other parasites that have parasitized things like caterpillars. Unsure of what species. Lovely form, check out the expanded unusual legs with teeth. Photo by Cole Cheng.
Ah, here is one of the most annoying of insects (to mammals that is) a tabanid fly, aka deer fly. But almost all of them have some sort of beautiful neon rainbow eye pattern to gift those who look closely. There must be reasons for this, and to make matters more interesting, it appears that there are many patterns to these color TV eyes, to some extent, by inspection of strings of pictures, they appear to be species specific. I also find this group to be more common in the region's wild areas than in the average backyard. Photo by Anders Croft #deerfly #tabanidae #fly #flies
Neoclytus scutellaris, one of the cerambycid beetles. Its larvae are apparent fans of dead Hickories. You spend hours ornmenting your house, Nature has spent millenia ornamenting Nature so you can ornament your house. Photo by Anders Croft. <b> ~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~</b>
All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.
This jobber here is in the former Sphecidae group which now has been split between Sphecidae and Crabronidae (I am leaning Sphecidae, but not 100% on that). Their wing veination is very similar to bees and they cross-mis-identification happens regularly. One hint here is the silvery (versus white) hairs on the face, which is a wasp thing not a bee thing.
Entrancing Omatidian. Full screen this kids. Very small fly, head about the size of the head of a pin. Unsure of species. An illuminated photobition of how lovely fly eyes can be, the eye color alone is humanly irreproducable, if you look closely you can see our camera lens in each of the facets of its eyes. We took this one with a 10x microscope lens on the end of a 200ml lens.
Photo by Anders Croft
<b> ~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~</b>
All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.
The Duck Spider. Unsure to say the least which species this might be, but I am calling it the Duck Spider. Beltsville, Maryland
This fly mostly eye. I don't know my flies well, so am not sure if this is actually one of the big-headed flies or something similar with its head mostly made up of its compound eyes. This critter is small and taken with a 10x microscope objective on a 200mm lens and this is the underside of the head rather than the top...they compound eyes meet at the top...but then several groups of flies have eyes that meet at the top...or nearly so. Magnificent creatures and one that will be . Photo by Adam Grima. <b> ~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~</b>
All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish. #fly #flies
The somewhat unsettling face of our friend, Trachusa dorsalis.
Trachusa dorsalis. Always a pleasure to gaze upon a Trachusa. Here this stylish male comes from Georgia at the border with Florida. A specialist on the oft ignored group of fuzzy beans (Strophostyles) that simply by the possibilities of Trachusas shows the need to incorporated fuzzy beans into conservation planting mixes. Photos by Orr Uzan-Tidhar and Grace Schilling.
Ready for some rasslin. Batocera rufomaculata. The very large Mango Stem Borer. Found on St. Croix where it is obviously introduced from what would appear to be the Indian subcontinent and/or Southeast Asia. Lovely beetle. Photo by Grace Schilling and Orr Uzan-Tidhar.
Centris Face. In this case C. smithii Centris Face from St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Photo by Grace Schilling
A little busman's holiday of mine is collecting bees of the Caribbean. 3 trips to St. Croix last year. This year 3 trips to St. Thomas.
This is Centris smithii a species that was here-to-fore unrecorded for the island. One of 3 Centris that were newly located. In general there is a lot of needed work for almost every island in the Caribbean to form just a list of species. Photo by Grace Schilling. All photos completely public domain.
Hey want something to do with your one valuable life? Figure out the proper species boundaries for ambush bugs in North America (Phymata). These lovelies come in many colors and are thought to be over-described. Really, who wouldn't want to work on this group? This particular petit four lime flower dragon was found on the Beltsville Ag Center in Maryland. #phymata #dragon #ambushbug
The Petit Four Spider (Mecaphesa asperata) the first record for Prince George's County (back in the day). This crab spider provides a little floral surprise. It tucks into flowers and when visitors come to the nectar bar for a quick drink, nabs them and juices them up with venom, often taking down insects quite a bit larger than they are. Imagine if something like that lurked around your neighborhood bar! Photo by Adam Grima. <b> ~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~</b>
All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.
Who knew there were that many lacewings? This is one of the brown members, which should plunk it into the Hemerobiidae group. If only I had know more we would have taken a picture of the wings. Anyway, love the crazy eyes of these species, more jeweled dome than eye. Specimen, once again, from the USDA National Honey Bee Lab site slated for destruction if the maglev train comes in. Photo by Adam Grima
Head of the previous post's ant. Exquisitousness in architecture. #ant #ants #patternsinnature
Basic small ant from Beltsville Agriculture Research Center. For something so small there is a lot of architecture going on here. I imagine it is identifiable to species. Perhaps a Myrmica? In addition to just the unbelievable numbers of individuals per acre there are 128 species known from Maryland alone. The amount of energy that passes through the ant kingdom with their endless toil spent tending, eating, rototilling the leaf letter, eating vegetation, perforating the soil, eating other insects and providing food, forage, and parasitism possibilities for all sorts of other creatures is worth a meditation on the scale of the individual human versus an ant. Reminds me of one of my favorite Twain quotes (referring here to the ultrafamous Admiral Nelson of 100 years ago...). "Nelson would have been afraid of ten thousand fleas, but a flea wouldn't be afraid of ten thousand Nelsons." - Mark Twain oh, photo by the inimitable Cole Cheng. #ant #ants #formicidae